Silly Silverware

Where in the Hudson Valley...?

By: Jackson Reeves

Published: 04/17/2009

When you come to a fork in the road, you usually need to decide which path to take. Will it be Robert Frost’s “the road less traveled” — or perhaps the path of least resistance? If you find yourself driving around one particular mid-Valley hamlet, however, no decisions are necessary. You can just stop and gawk at this huge piece of dinnerware, located at the intersection of two main roads.

“I think sculpture should do something other than just sit there,” says Stephen Schreiber, the local businessman and artist who built the 31-foot-tall structure that stabs this particular spot of land. Appropriately titled Fork in the Road, the piece was inspired by a postcard Schreiber found in an antiques shop he used to operate. The card read, “Greetings from the Big Fork in the Road,” and featured a picture of a giant eating utensil surrounded by a flock of tourists. Always one for puns, Schreiber knew the perfect spot in which to erect such a real-life fork: at the intersection right next to his house. He began construction in the late 1990s, using two 13-foot sheets of steel that he found while dumpster diving. With help from a local welder, Schreiber foisted his fork in place in January 2000.

Fork was Schreiber’s first piece of public art — “It’s fun to be able to assemble stuff; I get satisfaction out of it,” he says — but not his last. He is also responsible for creating the giant Prozac “pill” (with an affixed sign that reads “Don’t Worry — Be Happy”) located near the fork sculpture. “I think you have to have some levity. There’s too much seriousness,” he claims. “This punny stuff comes up and comes out.”

The über utensil — a local landmark in the most literal sense of the word — continues to stand tall in this tiny burg, and officials have shown no signs that they intend to take it down. Can you name the town that’s home to Schreiber’s Fork, and the two roads that form the intersection in question? If you can, E-mail us at edit@hvmag.com. The first reader to identify the correct location wins a prize. Good luck!